Gangaw township is growing sunflowers, which are oil crops on their farmlands as winter crops. The local farmers are growing the sunflowers on the fields separately and in a mixture with the butter bean farmlands, according to the sunflower growers from Gangaw township. Sunflower cultivation in Gangaw township has been introduced for 16 years. The local people are growing mostly Sanphola sunflowers.
“We have been growing the sunflowers for more than ten years. Earlier, we grew only the butterbean as winter crops. Now, we are growing the sunflowers on the butter bean farmland as a mixed crop. We are growing five butterbean rolls and one sunflower roll system. This system won’t drop the bean yield but will get extra sunflowers. Sunflower farmlands are put under cultivation only after paddy cultivation,” said a sunflower grower from Gangaw township.
The Gangaw Township grew 4,025 acres of sunflower farmland as winter crops in 2018, 4,484 acres in 2019 and 3,290 acres in 2020. After cultivation of monsoon paddy, the sunflower is grown continuously on monsoon farmlands.
The cultivation of sunflowers cost over K200,000 per acre. Each acre of sunflower yielded over 50 baskets. The grinding of sunflower can produce four visses of oil, and the sunflower oil is sold for K5,000 per viss.
Sein Kyaw (Translated by Hay Mar)
